MIPS sold its patents, and then Imagination was purchased.
Chipmaker Imagination Technologies today announced the purchase of the American microprocessor developer MIPS Technologies!
Now, for a long time, the cooperating companies Imagination and ARM Holdings may become the worst kokurenty.
We can also recall that ~ 15% of the shares of Imagination Technologies is owned by Intel, and another 9% of Imagination shares are owned by such a technology giant like Apple - both companies are actively using GPU technologies PowerVR - graphic processors developed by Imagination.
Now, a very curious situation turns out: Intel develops and releases its processors on the x86 architecture, while Apple and ARM Holdings develop their chips on the ARM architecture - all these companies have been active partners of Imagination Technologies and suddenly the last (perhaps unexpectedly for their partners) buys MIPS Technologies, which develops microprocessors on a competing MIPS architecture , which could easily take some of the following markets from ARM processors: 1. Smartphones, 2. Internet tablets and 3. Microservers (after all, MIPS Technologies even belongs to Open Handset Alli ance and regularly transfers fresh versions of Google Android to its processors).
And the most curious thing is that a consortium of companies led by ARM Holdings bought 498 patents from MIPS Technology for $ 350 million.
For just $ 60 million, Imagination itself received from the MIPS Technology the company itself, 160 staff and only 82 of the remaining patents. But according to the Imagination press service, the patents obtained are directly related to processor architectures, processor instructions and graphics technologies.
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Imagination officially stated: “that in the future the company plans to develop the graphic direction, incorporating MIPS technologies into it, as well as designing a wider range of solutions”.
A very bold statement, in fact (as far as I understand it), they say that they are ready to design chips with the MIPS + PowerVR GPU core, which will directly compete with all modern ARM processors such as NVidia Tegra 3, Apple A6X, etc.
Today, cheap and low-power 32-bit MIPS processors are used in inexpensive electronics, for example, in such products as: Smart-TVs, satellite receivers, Blu-ray players, navigators, game consoles like Sony PlayStation / Sony PSP, Internet tablets and even routers.
But once on 64-bit MIPS-processors even supercomputers manufactured by Silicon Graphics were built.
In principle, the potential of the MIPS architecture is huge, and if a lot of money is invested in its development and promotion, it is quite possible to forget about ARM processors nowadays, because MIPS processors are more universal (different versions of MIPS processors can be used from navigators to most powerful servers), more economical and so far have been cheaper!
I personally am very curious how it all ends:
In a couple of years, everyone will forget about a company like MIPS Technology, or will the price of ARM Holdings fall into the abyss?
What do you think about that?
* See the article on the same topic: “The future lies with microservers on MIPS processors” .
Links to the discussed news:
* "MIPS processor developer purchased by British Imagination" ;
* "Imagination acquired MIPS for confrontation with ARM" .
Now, for a long time, the cooperating companies Imagination and ARM Holdings may become the worst kokurenty.
We can also recall that ~ 15% of the shares of Imagination Technologies is owned by Intel, and another 9% of Imagination shares are owned by such a technology giant like Apple - both companies are actively using GPU technologies PowerVR - graphic processors developed by Imagination.
Now, a very curious situation turns out: Intel develops and releases its processors on the x86 architecture, while Apple and ARM Holdings develop their chips on the ARM architecture - all these companies have been active partners of Imagination Technologies and suddenly the last (perhaps unexpectedly for their partners) buys MIPS Technologies, which develops microprocessors on a competing MIPS architecture , which could easily take some of the following markets from ARM processors: 1. Smartphones, 2. Internet tablets and 3. Microservers (after all, MIPS Technologies even belongs to Open Handset Alli ance and regularly transfers fresh versions of Google Android to its processors).
And the most curious thing is that a consortium of companies led by ARM Holdings bought 498 patents from MIPS Technology for $ 350 million.
For just $ 60 million, Imagination itself received from the MIPS Technology the company itself, 160 staff and only 82 of the remaining patents. But according to the Imagination press service, the patents obtained are directly related to processor architectures, processor instructions and graphics technologies.
')
Imagination officially stated: “that in the future the company plans to develop the graphic direction, incorporating MIPS technologies into it, as well as designing a wider range of solutions”.
A very bold statement, in fact (as far as I understand it), they say that they are ready to design chips with the MIPS + PowerVR GPU core, which will directly compete with all modern ARM processors such as NVidia Tegra 3, Apple A6X, etc.
Today, cheap and low-power 32-bit MIPS processors are used in inexpensive electronics, for example, in such products as: Smart-TVs, satellite receivers, Blu-ray players, navigators, game consoles like Sony PlayStation / Sony PSP, Internet tablets and even routers.
But once on 64-bit MIPS-processors even supercomputers manufactured by Silicon Graphics were built.
In principle, the potential of the MIPS architecture is huge, and if a lot of money is invested in its development and promotion, it is quite possible to forget about ARM processors nowadays, because MIPS processors are more universal (different versions of MIPS processors can be used from navigators to most powerful servers), more economical and so far have been cheaper!
I personally am very curious how it all ends:
In a couple of years, everyone will forget about a company like MIPS Technology, or will the price of ARM Holdings fall into the abyss?
What do you think about that?
* See the article on the same topic: “The future lies with microservers on MIPS processors” .
Links to the discussed news:
* "MIPS processor developer purchased by British Imagination" ;
* "Imagination acquired MIPS for confrontation with ARM" .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/157633/
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